Page 35 of The Girl from the Tea Garden (The India Tea #3)

But just catching sight of Sam today, Adela’s heart had jumped in her chest and set off a pounding excitement.

No one else had ever had that effect on her.

He was looking a little dishevelled, his chin stubbled with a few days’ growth and his hair messy.

It was hard to tell what he was thinking behind his dark glasses, but the fleeting smile he had given her had raised her hopes, only for her to have them dashed so quickly by his brusque refusal to join their party.

She strained in vain to spot Sam, but he had melted back into the teeming crowds.

As the afternoon wore on, the revelries grew more boisterous and the noise increased. It seemed rowdier than the year before. Fluffy was dozing in her chair, and Jay was growing bored with it all.

‘We can leave anytime you want,’ he said. ‘Nerikot is going shortly too.’

Adela was about to agree when a commotion broke out further round on the slope.

Some men were arguing over a woman. Adela stood up and peered over, shielding her eyes.

No doubt this was one of the transactions that Fluffy so disapproved of, but which the British found titillating to watch: men getting rid of women they didn’t want and handing them on to men who did.

There was something familiar about the beautiful young woman bedecked in silver jewellery. Adela started to walk towards them.

‘Adela, stay away from the coolies,’ Jay called out.

‘It’s Pema!’ She picked up speed. She recognised the belligerent uncle. He was pushing Pema at another man. Pema was trying to hide her right cheek, the side that was scarred from her accident, with her shawl, but the other man was ripping it away to expose her.

‘Leave her alone!’ Adela cried, rushing towards them.

Pema looked up, her eyes beseeching as she spotted Adela hurtling across the slope.

A crowd of onlookers jostled around, whether in support of Pema, her uncle or the other man she wasn’t sure.

Just at that moment Adela caught sight of another face she knew: Ghulam Khan.

She stopped short, confused by his sudden appearance.

He was pushing towards the fracas from the opposite direction.

The men in dispute over Pema were shouting at each other, shoving the girl between them, the younger man demanding money back.

As Ghulam reached them, he raised his arms as if to speak.

At that moment Sam appeared out of nowhere and barged Ghulam out of the way, knocking him sideways.

Sam elbowed his way between the arguing men.

Pema cringed under her shawl and stared at Adela with terrified eyes.

Adela held her breath, expecting violence to erupt around Sam for daring to interfere.

But Sam cajoled and placated them with words and back slaps, letting each of them have their say.

The mood was volatile. Sam glanced once at Adela with a tiny nod that told her to leave.

‘Give him his money back,’ Sam ordered the uncle.

The uncle protested he would not, so Sam there and then emptied his pockets of all the money he had.

‘It’s all yours,’ he said to the younger man.

‘Now she’s mine.’ Then he reached a protective arm about Pema and pulled her away from them both.

The younger man scrambled for the money at his feet.

The uncle stared in suspicion at Sam, but did not try to stop him taking Pema.

The crowd parted for the tall missionary.

Adela watched stupefied as Sam led the Gaddi girl away.

Sam had just bought himself a woman right in front of her very eyes!

Adela stood for a long time, staring after him, but he didn’t look back once.

In the heat and press of bodies, she felt faint, yet was rooted to the spot.

She could not believe what she had just witnessed.

Jay sent a bearer to fetch her safely back.

By the time she had walked unsteadily to the picnic spot, trying to hide how upset she was, the news was spreading among the British onlookers like a forest fire.

The maverick missionary Sam Jackman had bought a wife– haggled enthusiastically for her like one of the local peasants.

Jay, concerned by Adela’s shaken appearance, ordered transport back to Eagle’s Nest for his guests and left his servants to pack up the camp.

It was only as they travelled back in the car, leaving the chaotic fair behind, that Adela remembered seeing Ghulam.

What was he doing there? Or had she mistaken him for someone else?

Her concern had been all for Pema, so she had only seen him for a few brief moments.

But deep down she was sure she was right.

Ghulam had not left the area at all; he was still around and no doubt active.

It didn’t bode well for peace in the hills.

But Ghulam left only a nagging unease, whereas Sam’s dramatic intervention at the bridal bidding had shocked her to the core. The gossips were already exaggerating the story as they left.

‘Fancy a man of God behaving like that.’

‘He must have been drunk. I hear he’s been drinking his way around Simla for days.’

‘Damn disgrace if you ask me. Church should kick him out.’

‘Got to admit the man’s got balls.’

‘Arthur!’

‘Reflects badly on us all.’

‘That’s what happens when a man goes native.’

Adela had not been able to resist rounding on them for their cattiness. ‘He was just standing up for the poor girl. I know her– she’s a Gaddi shepherdess– and her uncle was selling her off like she didn’t matter.’

But they had just looked at her askance and clicked their tongues when she’d walked on.

By the time they got back to Eagle’s Nest, Adela was beset by doubts.

What had really possessed Sam to intervene?

He could have called in the police if he’d thought Pema was in danger.

Why had he acted so impulsively and paid over money?

Unless he’d wanted Pema for himself. Perhaps he was so lonely in Narkanda that he saw his opportunity and took it.

She recoiled with distaste at the very idea.

Whatever the reason, Sam’s reputation was in tatters.

If he was half the man she believed he was, he would have to stand by Pema now.

There was no undoing what he had done. And there was no hope now, Adela thought with sickening realisation, of Sam ever marrying her.